Cross-dressing in film and television
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Cross-dressing in motion pictures began in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition of female impersonation in the English music halls when they came to America with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly (Jerry Howard), sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent years have there been dramatic films in which cross-dressing was included, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid 1960s. One early exception was the murderer, a transvestite who wears particularly frilly dresses and petticoats, in Alfred Hitchcock's British thriller Murder (1930).
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[edit] Film and video
[edit] As a central plot element
Movies that feature cross-dressing as a central plot element:
- I Don't Want to be a Man (Ich möchte kein Mann sein) (1920)
- Glen or Glenda (1953) - Ed Wood as a troubled cross-dresser, inspired by his own experiences.
- Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (1958) - Young countess dresses as a poor boy and join the robbers for save her friends.
- Some Like It Hot (1959) - Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dress as women and join an all-girl band.
- Psycho (1960) - Anthony Perkins is a killer who wears his dead mother's clothes.
- Homicidal (1961)
- Thunderball (1965) - a former enemy of Bond fakes his death and poses as his own widow in the prologue segment.
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
- Gunn (1967) - The killer is revealed to be a cross-dresser.
- In Like Flint (1967)
- The Kremlin Letter (1969) - George Sanders plays a notorious transvestite.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
- La Cage aux Folles (1978) - Features fabulous female impersonators.
- Victor/Victoria (1982) - Transvestism in various forms is included in this musical comedy.
- Tootsie (1982) - Dustin Hoffman becomes the female star of a television soap opera.
- Yentl (1983) - Barbra Streisand dresses as a boy so she can study the Jewish law.
- Just One of the Guys (1985)
- He's My Girl (1987)
- Mascara (1987)
- Torch Song Trilogy (1988)
- Nobody's Perfect (1989)
- Nuns on the Run (1990)
- The Crying Game (1992)
- Just Like a Woman (1992)
- Ladybugs (1992)
- Little Sister (1992)
- The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)
- Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) - Robin Williams dresses as a woman so he can see his children.
- M. Butterfly (1993)
- My Summer As a Girl (1994)
- Ed Wood (1994) - Biopic of the famous low-budget transvesite filmmaker with Johnny Depp.
- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) - Transvestism and transsexuality figure in this offbeat comedy.
- He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994)
- Adam Barfi (The Snowman) (1995)
- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) - Female impersonators help people in a small town.
- The Birdcage (1996)
- Twelfth Night (1996)
- Ma Vie en Rose (1997)
- Mr. Headmistress (1998)
- Mulan (1998)
- Shakespeare in Love (1998) - Includes Shakespeare's use of female impersonators in his plays.
- Boys Don't Cry (1999)
- Big Momma's House (2000)
- The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000)
- Sordid Lives (2000)
- All the Queen's Men (2001)
- Baran (2001)
- Motocrossed (2001)
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
- The Triumph of Love (2001)
- Sorority Boys (2002)
- Juwanna Mann (2002)
- Tipping the Velvet (2002)
- Osama (2003)
- Party Monster (2003)
- Stage Beauty (2004)
- White Chicks (2004)
- Kinky Boots (2005)
- She's the Man (2006) - Amanda Bynes dresses as a man to be accepted in Illyria's boys' soccer team and get revenge in Cornwall.
- A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story (2006)
- Madea's Family Reunion (2006) -Tyler Perry as Madea Simmons
- Norbit (2007)
[edit] As a minor plot element
Movies in which cross-dressing plays a minor but important role:
- The Unholy Three (1925) and (1930) - The incredible Lon Chaney played several roles, including an elderly woman, in both the silent and talking versions of this story.
- The Hollywood Review of 1929 (1929) - Buster Keaton appears in drag in one of the musical numbers.
- Babes in Toyland (1934) - Stan Laurel masquerades as a woman in an attempt to deceive the villain.
- The Devil Doll (1936) - Lionel Barrymore plays an evil, elderly woman.
- Love Crazy (1941) - William Powell makes a rare appearance in drag in this screwball comedy.
- You're in the Army Now (1941) - Jimmy Durante appears in drag in this wartime comedy.
- The Daring Young Man (1942) - Joe E. Brown plays his own grandmother in this top-rated comedy.
- Dancing Masters (1943) - Stan Laurel appears in a variety of dancing costumes, including a rather extravagant ballerina dress, in this very funny Twentieth Century Fox film that features an early appearance by Robert Mitchum.
- Jitterbugs (1943) - Stan Laurel portays a very funny, elderly woman, who keeps having trouble with her clothing.
- Abroad with Two Yanks (1944) - Both William Bendix and Dennis O'Keefe appear in drag in another wartime comedy.
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) - Alec Guiness plays multiple roles, including a woman.
- I Was a Male War Bride (1949) - Cary Grant is a French officer who marries a US Army officer played by Ann Sheridan and cross-dresses to pass as a bride.
- Casanova's Big Night (1954) - Bob Hope appears in drag.
- The Matchmaker (1958) - Anthony Perkins and Robert Morse dress in drag to escape from the Harmonia Gardens restaurant.
- The Mouse That Roared (1959) - Peter Sellers plays multiple roles, including the Grand Duchess of Fenwick.
- High Time (1960) Bing Crosby has to dress as a Southern belle as part of college initation.
- 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1963) - Tony Randall, as Medusa, turns a townswoman to stone.
- The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) - Paul Lynde dresses in drag as a disguise.
- Robin Hood (1973) - Robin Hood and Little John dress as two elderly female fortune-tellers to rob Prince John's wagon.
- Freebie and The Bean (1973)- Mystery hit man turns out to be a convincing tranvestite.
- Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) - Jeff Bridges crossdresses to distract bank guards in a robbery.
- Betty Blue (1986) - Zorg dresses (and passes) as a woman ("Josephine") in two crucial scenes.
- Tango & Cash (1989) - Kurt Russell as Cash cross-dresses to escape from the police.
- Junior (1994) - Arnold Schwarzenegger disguises himself to hide in a women's shelter during the last few months of an experimental male pregnancy.
- Charlie's Angels (2000) Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz are disguised as men to infiltrate a corporate headquarters.
- Wonder Boys (2000) - Michael Cavadias's character Tony/Antonia is a part-time transvestite.
- Sweet November (2001) - Sara's two confidantes, Chaz and Vince, are gay transvestites.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2004)- Éowyn dresses as a soldier to be allowed to fight with the men.
- Rent (2005) - One of the main characters, Angel, is a drag queen and can be considered to be "crossdressing".
- Robots (2005) - Fender, voiced by Robin Williams, slowly unleashes his cross-dressing tendencies.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) - Elizabeth Swann dresses as a man so she can go to sea in pursuit of Will Turner.
- The Producers (2005 film) - The gay director, Roger De Bris, wears a dress which he thinks makes him look like the Chrysler Building when he is suppose to be the Grand Dutchess Anastasia.
- Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) - When he is surrounded by police mortorcycles, Mr. Bean cross-dresses to trick the police.
[edit] As a non-comedic element
Most of the above films are comedies. Many other comedy films include instances of humorous cross-dressing, but do not feature it as a central plot element.
Films in which cross-dressing is treated in a more serious manner are relatively rare, although the list does include several dramas and biopics.
- Yentl (1983) - The title character is a young woman forced to cross-dress in order to fulfil her educational aspirations.
- The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) - A lone woman in the Old West takes on a male role in order to survive.
- Glen or Glenda (1953) - This semi-autobiographical movie stars its director Ed Wood, who was a transvestite. The subject of the film was originally intended to be Christine Jorgensen, who became famous in 1952 after undergoing male-to-female sex reassignment surgery, but instead the film became a more personal plea from Wood for tolerance towards cross-dressing.
- Sleepaway Camp (1983) - Revered as the most shocking twist ending in all horror movies, we learn that the killer, Angela, is actually a boy, who was raised as a girl by his aunt. In the films two sequels, it's revealed that Angela had a sex change to actually be a girl.
- Ed Wood (1994) - The film about the cult movie maker himself, who often cross-dressed. Directed by Tim Burton, the film stars Johnny Depp as Ed Wood.
- Just Like a Woman (1992) - Based on the autobiographical book *Gerald/ine by Monica Jay.
- Ma Vie en Rose (1997) - A Belgian film about a young boy named Ludovic, who believes that he was born in the wrong body and should have been a girl.
- Mulan (1998) - A Chinese woman disguises herself as a soldier to fight in place of her father.
- Baran (2001) - A young Afghan refugee disguises herself as a boy in order to work on a construction site in Iran.
- Osama (2003) - A 12-year-old Afghan girl dresses like a boy in order to get a job during the regime of the Taliban.
- Breakfast on Pluto (2005) - Patrick 'Kitten' Braden is a transvestite escort and cabaret singer.
[edit] Television
Milton Berle was one of the most famous early cross-dressing comedians in skits and such on his NBC shows from 1948 to 1956. Harvey Korman played a hefty Jewish mother character on The Carol Burnett Show. Flip Wilson created the memorable recurring character Geraldine Jones on The Flip Wilson Show. Some other comedy sketch shows, such as Monty Python's Flying Circus, Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen, Saturday Night Live and Kids in the Hall routinely feature visual cross-dressing, with men dressing as women and speaking in falsetto. Not to be outdone in this regard, the (female) British team of French and Saunders have produced many sketches in which one or both of the actresses portray men. Kenan Thompson currently plays a range of women on Saturday Night Live.
[edit] Notable television programs that have featured recurrent cross-dressing
- Bosom Buddies - Two men (Tom Hanks & Peter Scolari) regularly disguised themselves as women in order to live in a women-only hotel because of the dirt cheap rent.
- The Beverly Hillbillies - the role of Jethrine Bodine (Jethro's twin sister) was played by Max Baer Jr. (the actor portraying Jethro), dressed as a woman; her voice was provided by Linda Kaye Henning.
- M*A*S*H - Klinger regularly cross-dressed as part of a futile attempt to be dismissed from the military.
- The Drew Carey Show - Drew's brother, Steve Carey, is a cross dresser.
- Friends - Chandler's father is a cross dresser.
- Kids In The Hall - The majority of sketches performed on the show features one or more of the actors in drag.
- Arrested Development - Tobias Fünke (played by David Cross) disguises himself as a British nanny named Mrs. Featherbottom in order to maintain a relationship with his estranged family. (This is a direct reference to the film Mrs. Doubtfire). This development is an outcropping of the fact that, throughout the series, Tobias exhibits signs of being a latent homosexual.
- Saved by the Bell - Zach and Screech occasionally dress as women either to disguise themselves or for comic effect.
- Lilo & Stitch - Agent Pleakley (voiced by Kevin McDonald, a Kids in the Hall veteran) dresses in female clothing because he misunderstands human gender roles.[citation needed]
- Pokémon - the villain James often cross-dresses as a disguise.
- Sailor Moon - In one episode of the first season, Zoisite (one of the villains) disguises himself as Sailor Moon. In the "Sailor Moon Super S" season, Fish-Eye always dresses like a woman.
- Megaman NT Warrior (Rockman EXE) - Villain Magnus Gauss (Gauss Magnets) cross-dresses as a woman and is obsessed with Dr. Wily. In one episode (unaired in the dub), three of the main characters cross-dress as idol singer Aki-chan to rescue a group of kidnapped girls.
- He's a Lady - The 2004 reality television series involves male contestants competing with each other to act as effeminately as possible, including cross-dressing.
- You Rang, M'Lord? - Cissy is a lesbian cross-dresser, complete with monocle, cravat and short hair.
- Ouran High School Host Club - Main character Haruhi Fujioka crossdresses regularly and is initially mistaken as male by the members of the Host Club.
- I My Me! Strawberry Eggs-Main character Hibiki Amawa disguises himself as a woman to obtain a job as a teacher at school that will only hire women.
- Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru - Mihuzho Miyanokoji crossdresses to attend a girls' school as per his grandfather's wishes.
- Fushigi Yuugi - Nuriko, one of the Suzaku seven star warriors, dresses as a woman in memory of his dead sister.
- El Hazard - Makoto Mizuhara impersonates Princess Fatora of Roshtaria who is kidnapped by the Phantom Tribe because of his uncanny resemblance to the princess.
- Boy Meets World - Different Characters cross dress in later episodes.
British stand-up comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who describes himself as an 'executive' or 'action' transvestite and regularly cross-dresses both on and off stage, has acted in several films (including most recently Ocean's Twelve), as well as releasing his stand-up work on video and DVD (Live at the Ambassadors (1993), Unrepeatable (1994), Definite Article (1996), Glorious (1997), Dress to Kill (1999), Circle (2002), and Sexie (2003).
